Pages

22 April 2012

New park, new hobby

One day my son asked me about making and flying a kite. Wow, that was decades ago, back when I was still a kid myself and we flew kites in Burnham Park in Baguio, my hometown in the Philippines. I am familiar with the diamond-shaped kite, but it's been so long I'm not sure if we can make one from scratch and ensure that it flies.

What's the next best thing? Buy one. So one windy weekend, Jo-Lo and I dropped by The Warehouse and bought a Buzz Lightyear kite with $5. There was a much better kite, with a bigger and tougher fabric, but it's three times as much and it required stronger wind to fly than this simpler one. Besides, this is - shall we say - a test flight!

And off we went to the green fields behind West Park School in Johnsonville. There was a surprise awaiting us there. The children's park has finally been renovated! It's a rope playground. And it's not just some rope playground. It's the biggest in New Zealand.

Jo-Lo had fun climbing and tackling this huge obstacle course for a few minutes before we went off to the playing field nearby to fly the kite. We are definitely coming back at some other time. But it's time to do some flying.

We did the usual bit - I tossed the kite and Jo-Lo ran off, pulling the kite against the wind. I took over for a while when I realized that a fast-slipping string can hurt the hand. But the wind was favourable that afternoon. We did not have to do a lot of running to coax the kite to fly with the wind.

This has made me want to have my own kite, and have other friends along too, for a fun afternoon of kite-flying in windy Wellington!